Letters to the editor March 29, 2014

I was watching the first segment of “Dancing With the Stars” on Monday night to see which celebrities were participating.

To my amazement one out of the 12 contestants was a beautiful young woman who was an amputee with both legs missing. Not only did she win a medal snowboarding in the Special Olympics, but she did a fantastic job dancing. Her prosthetics didn’t seem to slow her down one bit either.

What an inspiration she was to any person who has disabilities. What with so many of our military personnel coming home with their limbs missing, they will be able to see that they too have a chance to learn to dance, ski, run and do whatever challenge they wish to pursue.

Mary Lou Frenzel

Harbor

They Earn the jingle

Dave Itzen, our local lad, is running for Curry County commissioner this May election.

We have great weather.

We have God-given beauty of ocean and mountain.

We have good people.

We want good Curry County schools and churches and towns.

Our businesses have clean malls and helpful personnel.

We have dedicated county commissioners.

You get good guidance when they have had years of studying local laws — county laws — city involvement. Keep reading — state law — consideration in federal law.

Strip mining will have irreparable downstream consequences: Water quality in the drainages of Hunter Creek and the Illinois, Smith, and Pistol rivers will be jeopardized; health of humans, wildlife and fisheries will be imperiled; and tourism will be threatened. The Aquatic Conservation Strategy of the Northwest Forest Plan was implemented to protect key watersheds on federal lands like these.

It is appalling that St. Peter Port Capital (the British company that owns Red Flat Nickel), the epitome of “outside interests” with no representatives living in Curry County, could be allowed to threaten the health of our citizens and wildlife under protection of the General Mining Act. This law was passed in 1872 to encourage prospecting for minerals by U.S. citizens; at that time “mining” was a low-technology enterprise limited to a few acres.

Today industrial mineral extraction techniques require massive landscape changes, deforestation, and use of multiple toxic chemicals (e.g., mercury and cyanide), potentially polluting hundreds of miles of rivers and aquifers. The self-serving interests of St. Peter Port Capital clearly clash with the common interests of all Curry County citizens.

This is a nonpartisan issue: Everyone benefits from protecting ourselves and our water resources from strip mining.

Now is the time to send your send comments to the websites of Congressman DeFazio, Senators Merkley and Wyden, and to Rob MacWhorter, supervisor of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.